The unharmed house behind illustrates that the poor are more

vulnerable.

Is climate change the greatest threat to tackling poverty?

Mike Wiggins 7th March 2010

Rita’s story “I was just married when the big men came and took all the trees, even though they belonged to us. Then the land started flooding and washed away the good soil. This old lady here says there weren’t any floods in her childhood. And now we have droughts coming more and more [frequently]. Diseases that hit our children that we’d never seen before – trouble with their eyes, and with the breathing. One by one the insects started disappearing. It was when our crops failed and we saw the bees lying on the ground desperate for water that we really worried”

Giodone’s story

“We used to know when it would rain, but now we don’t. We don’t know when to plant our crops. We asked the government and the NGOs for help, but they didn’t know what to do. We went back to the old ways. We learned from the very old men and women how to feed ourselves from the beginning.”

Albutou’s story

“When I was a young girl, my mother told me to prepare for the big drought. She said it comes when the young girls become women, and maybe once more only in their lifetime, so we have to save food to survive that year. . .

We have had drought ever since I can remember. And these last 7 years have all been drought. We’ve lost our cattle, and our crops have all failed. This area used to have grass. Now it has all gone. Sometimes we survive on the roots and the thorny grass. We are so ashamed.”

Why is a Christian development agency involved with climate change?

Partners reporting weather changes & asking for help

"Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you? "

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

Matthew 25v44-45

What does the science say?

temp riseVariations of the Earth’s surface temperature for the past 1,000 years

What is causing the temperature rise?

The greenhouse effect is unequivocal

CO2 Sources

Fossil fuels Deforestation

Agriculture Cement production

• weather related disasters doubled in 10 years

• due to increased severe weather, floods, storms

• increase mainly & medium-scale ‘forgotten’ disasters

• geophysical disasters unchanged

Climate disasters are increasing

Other findings

More than a third of species assessed in a major international biodiversity study are threatened with extinction, scientists have warned.

Methane released from thawing sea beds

Hundreds of thousands of funnels of methane bursting out of the sea.

Dead oceans

All fish and seafood gone by 2048 (Science: 2007)

UK Met Office: world heading for 5-7oC rise

• mass extinction• ocean acidification• brutal heat waves• 1-2m sea level rise• >100 million climate refugees• >1/3 planet desertified• ½ the planet in drought• loss of glacier water to 1Bn people

Impact of climate change on the majority world

Climate impacts

Extreme weather

Climate impacts

More floods

Climate impacts

More intense hurricanes

Climate impacts

More drought

Climate impacts

Displacement

Climate impacts

Desertification

Climate impacts

More disease

Climate impacts

Food insecurity

Climate impacts

Rising sea levels

The cost of responding

Respond now: 1% of global GDP/ yr

Respond later: 15% - 20% GDP/ yr

What does the bible say?

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? . . . Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place?”Job 38

We should care because God does

Restored relationships

Stewardship

“There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying, murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Because of this the land mourns, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying.”

Love our neighbours

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind . . . And . . . Love your neighbor as yourself.” Mtt 22:37-39

“I was hungry and you gave me food, thirsty and you gave me drink . . . sick and you took care of me” Mtt 25:35-36

Our eternal destiny

We know that the whole of creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth. Rom 8:19-22

What can we do about it?

Pray

Campaign

Give

North Niger: Wells and dikes

Restore soil

Burkina Faso

Cot Darat, Indonesia

Growing crops on salty soil

Flood escape platform

Indonesia

Live more simply

Use less energy Travel less Consume less